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Event Details

Sun, June 05, 2016

17:00 – 18:00

Limonaia
VILLA LA PIETRA
Via Bolognese 120
50139 Firenze - ITALIA

Villa La Pietra’s The Season and the Sacro/Profano series of Salon/Sanctuary Concerts open with EROS ΕΡΩΣ, a program that honors the inspiration of the Renaissance through a performance of ancient Greek Lyric poetry, created and performed by Ensemble Melpomen.

The Florentine Camerata looked to Athenian dramatists in their creation of opera, and Renaissance thinkers resurrected the Greek philosophers in their pursuit of a “new” paradigm. This theatrical concert of reconstructed treasures gives voice to such varied characters as Sappho, Anacreaon, Theognis, Solon, and Mimnermos, scanning the range of expression at the dawn of humanism.

 

EROS / ΕΡΩΣ

Ensemble Melphomen

Featured Biographies

Melpomen

ENSEMBLE

A recorder player and lecturer at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis for many years, Conrad Steinmann has also been a music archaeologist and aulos player in the field of Ancient Greek music of the classical period for two decades. Integrating scholarly knowledge with the practical understanding of a working musician to bring to life ancient Greek music, his unique endeavours and researches have been supported by a scholarship from the Greek Stavros Niarchos Foundation. As a recorder player, Conrad Steinmann has travelled the world with groups such as the ‘Ensemble 415’, ‘London Baroque’ and ‘diferencias’. His commitment to New Music has widened his horizons. Among his many recordings of baroque repertoire is a CD of Vivaldi’s Flute concertos, titled ‘Giorno e Notte’.

As a singer and harpist of Mediterranean origin, Arianna Savall is predestined to bring Greek poets such as Sappho back to musical life. Just like these poets, Arianna Savall accompanies herself on stringed instruments of the classical Greek period, here the bárbitos and the lyre. With her ensemble ‘Hirundo Maris’ and as a member of renowned ensembles as ‘Hesperion XXI’ and ‘Ricercare Consort’, she is active all over the world and can be heard on countless CDs, including one with her own compositions (Bella Terra).

Born in Rimini, Giovanni Cantarini began to engage in historical singing even before completing his studies in classical philology at the University of Bologna. Further vocal studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and his profound knowledge of ancient Greece make him an indisputable singer in the field of epic and lyrical music of Archaic and Classical Greece. Like the citharedes Mr. Cantarini accompanies himself on a specially reconstructed kithára. He is also a member of various renowned vocal ensembles such as ‘Las Huelgas’ with music of the Renaissance and the ensemble ‘Gilles Binchois’ with music of the Middle Ages under Dominique Vellard.

Martin Lorenz was born in Zurich, and studied in Zurich, Paris and Amsterdam before establishing himself in various ensembles as a percussionist and also as a composer in numerous prestigious festivals throughout Europe. In the Ensemble Melpomen Mr.  Lorenz plays the rhythm instruments rhómbos, týmpanon, krótala und kýmbala.